Chapter XVII explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Self-Discovery and Ignorance

  Rachel is in a state of unanalyzed emotional turmoil, unable to name her feelings for Terence. Her ignorance of her own emotions and her sudden rejection of Christianity mark a pivotal moment of self-discovery.

• Love and Marriage

  Rachel's intense, unnamed feelings for Terence Hewet dominate her thoughts and actions. The chapter explores the early, confusing stages of romantic love, contrasting Rachel's inexperience with conventional courtship.

• Communication and Silence

  Helen observes Rachel but refrains from speaking, believing it best not to interfere. Rachel and Terence's feelings remain unspoken, and their partings are marked by a sense of unsatisfied interruption.

Characters to notice

• Rachel Vinrace

  Rachel is in a state of unanalyzed emotional turmoil, driven by her feelings for Terence Hewet. She attends church but experiences a violent rejection of Christianity after observing a devout worshipper.

• Helen Ambrose

  Helen observes Rachel's emotional state with alarm, comparing it to a river racing toward a waterfall. She refrains from interfering, believing it best to let things take their course.

• Terence Hewet

  Terence attends the church service, initially enjoying the beauty of the language, but becomes entirely focused on Rachel. He is as painfully disturbed by his thoughts as she is by hers.

• St. John Hirst

  Hirst reads Sappho's Ode to Aphrodite during the service and scribbles on an envelope. He and Rachel have become good friends, and he reads his play aloud to her.

• Mrs. Flushing

  Mrs. Flushing sits with Hirst and Hewet during the service, peering at Hirst's Greek poem and asking about Sappho. She manages to participate in the Litany while indulging her curiosity.

• Mr. Bax

  Mr. Bax, the clergyman, delivers a sermon on the duty of English visitors to natives, rambling amiably about small things influencing people and the importance of politeness.

Key passages

• “Her mind was very much in the condition of the racing water to which Helen compared it. She wanted to see Terence; she was perpetually wishing to see him when he was not there; it was an agony to miss seeing him; agonies were strewn all about her day on account of him, but she never asked herself what this force driving through her life arose from.”

  Rachel's mind is like rushing water, as Helen observed. She constantly longs to see Terence and feels pain when he is absent, yet she never questions the source of this powerful drive in her life.

  This passage illustrates Rachel's unanalyzed emotional state and Helen's metaphorical observation of her condition.

• “She was a limpet, with the sensitive side of her stuck to a rock, forever dead to the rush of fresh and beautiful things past her. The face of this single worshipper became printed on Rachel's mind with an impression of keen horror, and she had it suddenly revealed to her what Helen meant and St. John meant when they proclaimed their hatred of Christianity.”

  The devout worshipper is like a limpet clinging to a rock, oblivious to the beauty around her. This sight horrifies Rachel and makes her suddenly understand Helen and St. John's hatred of Christianity.

  This moment marks Rachel's violent rejection of her religious beliefs, triggered by observing a single worshipper.

• “The argument of the sermon was that visitors to this beautiful land, although they were on a holiday, owed a duty to the natives. It did not, in truth, differ very much from a leading article upon topics of general interest in the weekly newspapers.”

  The sermon's main point was that tourists in this beautiful country have a responsibility to the local people, resembling a typical newspaper editorial on current affairs.

  This summarizes Mr. Bax's sermon, critiquing its conventional and unremarkable nature.